So then DC fans this is a bit odd the company has released a new animated feature film on the weekend and well since i've made it a statement to review every new DC animated movie when it comes out it looking like i'm reviewing this on the weekend. I know that's a strange way to start of a review but it's also a strange thing that the company did and it's something I will be addressing later in the review as well so here is my review of Justice League vs. the Fatal Five.
The plot of the movie is a group known as the fatal five is hell bent on destroying earth and the only thing that can stop them is the Justice League a boy from the future known as Star Boy and new Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. For me this plot felt like your average superhero movie plot with the only new thing really added was the inclusion of both Jessica and the Legion Of Superheros apart from that there was nothing to really set it apart from all of the other superhero movies.
There's a few names that will make fans of the classic DC Animated Universe very happy and they are George Newbern as Clark Kent / Superman , Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman and of of course the legend that is Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman and starring with them in this movie is Elyes Gabel as Thomas Kallor / Star Boy , Diane (not related to Eddie) Guerrero as Jessica Cruz / Green Lantern , Peter Jessop as Tharok , Tom Kenny as Bloodsport , Matthew Yang King as The Persuader , Sumalee Montano as Emerald Empress , Philip Anthony-Rodriguez as Mano , Daniela Bobadilla as Miss Martian , Kevin Michael Richardson as Mr. Terrific , Noel Fisher as Brainiac 5 and Tara Strong as Saturn Girl.
That right there is one hell of a voice cast and I have to say that it's actually better then the voice cast assembled for Batman: Hush. As for what I thought about the acting those who play the returning characters are pure awesome and it's great to hear the voices of Wonder Woman , Superman and Batman again in something JL related as for the other actors they do a good job but they can't compare to these DC legends.
The animation was done by DR Movie who also worked on the original Justice League animated series. I have to say that even tho DC animated films have kind of been getting a slating in terms of the quality of animation and I personally think that the animation in this film is honestly really good it's not great by means but it's alot better then the animation seen in the Justice League TV show and that's a huge plus in my opinion.
As i've been more than hinting at all throughout this review this film is set in the DCAU and unlike Batman and Harley Quinn where you could never really tell if that was in the DCAU or not this one you can tell right away. You can tell that it's in that world because of the design of the characters they all look like there animated TV counterparts and I have to say that it's good to see these designs again there so iconic that I think whenever you think of these characters these are the designs that you think of.
Now I actually have a bit of a confession / funny story to tell you guys so ok in the past week or so i've been getting ready for the release of this movie because I thought it was odd that DC was releasing an animated direct to DVD movie on a Saturday and in the past few days i've gone from knowing it was Justice League that was coming out today to thinking that it was Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that was coming out this weekend and that Justice League vs The Fatal Five or as I typed in on google Batman Vs The fatal Five was coming out on the exact same day I don't know how this happend but it did and feel free to laugh.
Back to the movie in my opinion the plot of this movie feels like an extended two part episode stitched together. There was nothing about this movie that screamed feature length movie to me at all if anything it felt like a story that could have been told in two episodes of either Justice League or Justice League Unlimited and for a movie based on a show that's not what you want you need a story that can only be told in a film and this doesn't have it in my opinion.
If your going into this and not expecting there to be any nods to the rest of the DCAU then you'd be wrong because there are a few hints to the wider universe. Like for example there's a cool cameo from a classic Batman villain and they use the design from Batman: The Animated Series which I loved and actually in that scene there's a few more cameos from other classic Batman villains again using there animated series designs i'm not going to say what i think the best easter egg is tho because it's something that you need to see.
I'm sure that i'm not the only one that's starting to think this but it feels like there starting push Jessica Cruz down our throats a little bit. Please note that this isn't me hating on the character in fact I really love her but she's appearing in alot of media outside of comic books and I think that they should hold up on putting her in things at least until she's got a bit more of a comic history behind her since she's a new character she doesn't have that much history behind her that the rest of the characters have.
Since this is an action movie we have to talk about the action that's seen in the movie and in this regard the movies kind of fails. I say kind of because while the action can indeed be cool to see at times there are also times where the action seems boring at least in my opinion and I have no idea why that's the case but when the action's good it can be really fun to see and indeed alot of the action involving Jessica is fun to see.
I just want to take a minuet to talk about the new Warner Bros Animation logo animation for those of you who don't know when The Lego Movie 2 came out the company debuted a new logo for that part of Warner Bros and while the animation for that logo does indeed look good all it is after all is Daffy Duck being crazy before being manhandled by Porky Pig. It doesn't really work when it's being played infront of a serious superhero movie that kind of logo animation really only works for wacky comedies.
Overall this isn't that bad of a movie but for something set in the iconic DCAU it feels like a let down but in my opinion it's still a really good movie and it's easily better the remake of Dumbo and so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me and incase your wondering yes this is an image from the upcoming Batman: Hush movie.